Hey Visor Gang, Fall bass fishing is in full swing in much of the country but coming to an abrupt end in the upper midwest. Last week the water temps were 49 degrees and we have below freezing temps in the forecast. Hopefully there are a few more trips chasing brown fish before we freeze up here in Minnesota.
Tip of the Month
“The Jig That’s Fooling Fall Bass”
Fall bass love a slow, subtle presentation. I’ve been having great success with a 3/8 oz BassTEK jig, fished slowly both deep and shallow with a new Yamamoto Shinobi Grub, Speed Craw or your favorite trailer.
80% plus of my 6lb bass have come on a jig in October or November in Minnesota.
Monthly Omnia Discount Code
CODE:OMHB8AQQ
Get 10% off your next Omnia purchase all November long.
If you’re like a lot of bass anglers, you’ve probably tried stick worms with pre-molded chartreuse tails. They’re eye-catching for sure—but sometimes they’re a little too loud, especially in clear water. In a recent video, HellaBass breaks down a smarter, more customizable way to add just the right amount of flash without overdoing it—and it could make a big difference in your hookup and catch rates.
🌟 Why Pre-Molded Chartreuse Tails Fall Short
While bright chartreuse tails can help trigger strikes, they often look unnatural in clear conditions or when fish are keying in on more subtle prey. Instead of buying multiple packs of worms with different levels of brightness, HellaBass recommends creating your own custom chartreuse accents.
✍️ The Simple Dye Trick That Makes a Big Difference
Using chartreuse dye pens or liquid dyes, you can add color to just the middle section of your soft plastic worm. This creates a subtle glow that still grabs attention underwater but doesn’t scream “fake bait.” It’s also way more versatile—you can do this with any color worm you already have.
“It’s a space-saver, a money-saver, and it looks more natural in the water,” says HellaBass.
🔄 Make Your Worms Last Longer with Arsenal Wacky Bands
Another secret weapon? The new chartreuse and clear wacky bands from Arsenal Fishing. These bands are made for both wacky and neko rigging, and they offer a ton of benefits:
Keep your hook centered for better hookup ratios
Prevent tail-nipping from small fish
Extend the life of your soft plastics
Add a splash of visibility with the chartreuse version
In the video, HellaBass walks through how to use the Arsenal Wacky Tool to easily rig your worm with one of these bands. It’s fast, clean, and works with any style of worm.
💡 Why This Hack Works
Customizing your wacky rig this way gives you the best of both worlds—natural presentation with just the right pop, and gear that lasts longer so you’re not constantly restocking your tackle bag. Whether you’re new to bass fishing or a seasoned pro, this technique helps you fish smarter, not harder.
Sure, you’ve got the legally required gear—life jackets, fire extinguisher, throw cushion—but what about the stuff that can truly save the day when you’re out on the water? These eight items might not be on your boat yet, but once you add them, you’ll wonder how you ever fished without them!
I used to swear by a set of jumper cables, but let’s be real—a compact boost box is a total game-changer. It takes up way less space and can instantly bring a dead battery back to life. Honestly, I rarely need it myself (shoutout to my PowerHouse Lithium starting battery with a built-in boost), but it’s great for helping out fellow anglers in need.
Ever had to turn down a last-minute fishing invite because you didn’t have an extra PFD? Keeping a spare means you’ll never have to leave a buddy behind. Bonus: At a tournament take-off, you can be the hero when someone forgets theirs. The inflatable PFDs don’t take up much space in your boat!
Fish care is everything, especially if you’re running a livewell. These little weighted clips attach to a fish’s pectoral fins, keeping them upright and reducing stress. Translation? Healthier releases, fewer dead fish penalties, and peace of mind knowing you’re doing your part for conservation.
4. Marine Rope
It may seem old-school, but a good marine grade rope is still a must-have. While spot-lock trolling motors and shallow water anchors have replaced the need to tie off as often, a strong rope is clutch when you or another angler needs a tow back to the ramp.
5. Wet Wipes
Let’s face it—boat ramp restrooms are either non-existent or out of TP. Ditch the struggle of keeping toilet paper dry in a plastic bag and upgrade to flushable wet wipes. Your future self (and rear) will thank you.
If something comes loose in your boat, chances are zip ties can fix it—whether it’s a battery tray, a transducer, or a rogue wire. Keep a stash handy, and pair them with pliers and electrical tape for a quick, MacGyver-style repair kit.
7. Multi-Tool
A toolbox takes up too much space, but a quality multi-tool? That’s the Swiss Army knife of fishing. Loose bolts, wiring fixes, last-minute tackle adjustments—this one tool does it all.
These aren’t just for cutting line. A solid pair of side cutters can safely remove deeply hooked baits, saving fish that might otherwise not survive. Even more importantly, they’re a lifesaver if you ever have to cut a hook out of your own hand (it happens to the best of us).
Final Thoughts
Stocking your boat with these essentials can make your time on the water safer, smoother, and way more enjoyable. Got any must-have items you swear by? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear what’s in your boat!
Are you tired of sticking to the same old lakes? Do you dream of quickly finding fish on unfamiliar waters? Omnia’s suite of tools, including their waypoint management system, mapping features, and mobile app, can help you do just that. Here’s how to use them to efficiently scout and fish new locations, even when you only have a few hours to fish.
• Fishing Reports: Check recent fishing reports to see what species are present, where they are being caught and hot baits that are producing. This helps you confirm the presence of your target species.
• Mapping Tools: Use the map to identify potential fishing spots. Look for key features such as:
◦ Shallow bays and creek inlets: These areas can hold fish, especially in the spring and fall.
◦ Points, reed islands, and docks: These structures are often fish magnets
◦ Vegetation: Identify areas with grass, pads, and other vegetation, as these can be prime locations all year long.
◦ Hard Cover: Look for shallow areas with hard cover, such as rocks or docks.
◦ Deep Water Access: Locate docks or shallow flat areas that provide access to deeper water.
◦ Bottom Composition: Utilize the Omnia Pro mapping features to identify hard bottoms, vegetation, and other structural features.
• Wind Direction: Use the app to note the wind direction and consider this when you are choosing where to fish.
• Waypoint Creation: Mark these locations on the map as waypoints. You can add notes, and even give them descriptive names. These waypoints will automatically sync to your Omnia mobile app. The waypoints that you set up act as a checklist for locations to check out when you are on the water.
• Navionics Integration: Use the Navionics mapping feature within the Omnia app to identify points, flats, and other underwater features not immediately apparent on standard maps.
Watch actual use of tools to find bass on a new lake fast!
On-the-Water Efficiency
Once you’re at the lake, the Omnia app continues to be a valuable tool.
• Mobile App Accessibility: Use the Omnia app on your phone or tablet to see the waypoints you’ve created. Instead of aimlessly searching, you can use your waypoints as a checklist. Go directly to the areas that looked promising during your pre-trip scouting.
• Scan and Confirm: Use your boat’s electronics to scan the waypoints that you made on the map and confirm the features that you thought you saw. If a spot isn’t producing, move on to the next waypoint on your list. The waypoints help you systematically cover the water.
• Real-Time Adjustments: Use the app to note water temperatures, wind conditions, and other factors, which can influence fish behavior.
• Waypoint Sharing: If fishing with others, you can easily share your waypoints via text or email directly from your phone.
• Save waypoints on the go: If you find a new feature or a new access point you can easily create a waypoint on your phone while you are on the water.
Waypoint Management and Data Integration
Omnia’s system isn’t just about marking spots.
• Detailed Notes: Add detailed notes to your waypoint. This might include:
◦ What you caught fish on
◦ Water conditions
◦ Time of year
◦ Type of cover
• Cloud Backup: Your waypoints are automatically backed up in the cloud, preventing data loss.
• Cross-Platform Access: Waypoints and notes are accessible from your computer, phone, and tablet, meaning you can research and record information anywhere.
• Premium Features: With a Omnia Pro account, you can access additional features such as weather conditions recorded at the time of a catch. This can help you identify patterns. You can also access different mapping layers such as vegetation and bottom hardness.
Watch to see Omnia Waypoint Tools
Key Takeaways
• Omnia’s waypoint system and app are valuable tools for quickly learning how to fish new bodies of water.
• Pre-trip planning is crucial for efficiently targeting fish so you spend more time catching fish and having fun on your next fishing trip.
• Using the mobile app allows you to quickly check your waypoints and make adjustments while on the water. By using the data gathered, you can begin to recognize patterns and plan your next fishing trips effectively.
• The free Omnia account provides many useful tools that will allow you to get on fish faster.
By using these tools, you can confidently explore new lakes and maximize your time on the water. Learn more about Omnia Pro here.
Jacob Wheeler, a well-known professional bass angler, recently announced on his YouTube channel that he’s building his own bass boat. As we dug deeper into this, we discovered that he’s actually working with a new boat brand called Icon Boats, a subsidiary of HCB Yachts, which is rooted in Hydra Sports Heritage.
But the question is, do we really need a new bass boat brand? And what makes Ikon Boats so special that it’s being touted as the best new bass boat out there? Let’s dive in and find out.
Jacob Wheeler’s New Bass Boat
First, it’s important to note that Ikon Boats is not your budget-friendly, everyman’s boat. This is a high-end bass boat that’s likely to exceed $100,000 when fully loaded. But what sets it apart from other luxury boats in the market?
For starters, Ikon Boats has a unique shape and design, with a distinctive “wishbone” in the top cap that makes it stand out from the crowd. The seats are also unlike anything you’ve seen before in a bass boat, resembling modified gamer chairs. And the compartments have unique edges and angles, setting it apart from the simple geometry found in most boats.
One interesting thing to note is that the company is releasing an LX20 and LX21 edition right away, which is typical for major bass boat brands to have a 20 and 21-foot option. However, it doesn’t look like there will be any 18 or 19-foot starter-sized boats initially.
But what about the company’s heritage? Icon Boats is linked to Hydra Sports, a popular bass boat brand from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. However, the company stopped producing bass boats in 1998 and went into yacht making. Ikon Boats, therefore, represents a new era of bass boats, with little expectation that it will resemble its predecessor in any significant way.
So why should you consider Ikon Boats over other top-tier bass boat brands like Phoenix, Caymas, Triton, or Skeeter? While it’s hard to say definitively without trying the boat out for yourself, the unique design, luxury feel, and promise of high performance make it a compelling option.
In conclusion, Ikon Boats is an exciting new addition to the bass boat market, offering a fresh take on luxury and performance. While it may not be for everyone due to its high price point, for those looking for the best of the best, Icon Boats is definitely worth checking out.
How to Wacky Rig Senko? Wacky Rigging in its simplest form is taking a Senko or soft plastic stick worm and hooking right in the middle with a wacky style hook. Normally fished weightless or with a very small wacky jig head. While that will catch fish, there is a whole lot more to wacky rigging & being efficient in how you fish a wacky rig.
What size hook for wacky rigs? There are a ton of great hooks for wacky rigging, my two go-to hooks are VMC Neko Hooks in sizes #1 & 1/0. I find that octopus-style wacky hooks often skin hook fish in the mouth & I lose more fish with those hooks.
Best style wacky hook for catching more bass!
How to Fish a Wacky Rig? The beauty of a wacky rigged soft plastic worm is that it pretty much creates its own action. Cast it around likely areas that hold bass, like docks, trees, laydowns, stumps, pads, weed clumps, etc., and let the rig slowly sink to the bottom. More often than not, bass will eat the bait on the initial fall, if not give the bait small pulls and lifts, letting the bait fall on semi slack line on the way back to the boat. Rinse and repeat and be ready to get bit. Still not sure how to fish a wacky rig? Watch the video below to see its effectiveness for catching bass.
Better ways to Wacky Rig Worms One of the downfalls of wacky rigging is that you burn through a lot of baits. Because you are just hooking the bait in the center, baits often easily rip in half or fly off when landing a fish. The most common way to improve this is by using a simple O-ring tool make help keep the baits on your hook. While the O-ring helps immensely, there is an even better solution. For the ultimate in bait preservation, the Arsenal Wacky Bands and Tool take the cake.
Best tool for wacky rigging senkos & neko style worms
Why should you use Arsenal Wacky bands? Soft plastic worms and stick baits may seem relatively inexpensive, but if you are on a hot bite, you could easily go through a couple of bags of worms per day and that can add up if you are just wacky rigging with just a simple wacky hook through the worm.
What do popular Senkos & Stick worms cost? Here is a quick chart for the cost of popular wacky worms:
Average Cost of Senko Style worms
This chart quickly shows you why investing in a good wacky system, like the Arsenal Wacky tool will quickly pay for itself and save you a ton of cash! When most bags of soft plastics cost over $5 each if you can an extra fish or three per worm, the savings add up fast and we end up with less lost worms falling in the water as litter.
If you like to fish Wacky Worms in deeper water or current, think about making your own wacky jigs as I show in the video below. This video will help you simplify your gear & reduce the amount of tackle you need to carry, which is great especially if you fish from the bank or a smaller boat like a kayak.
Fish Wacky Senkos Deeper
If you want to continue to learn how to catch more big bass and suck less, make sure you subscribe to everything HellaBass!
Bass fishing rivers like the upper Mississippi River can be intimidating to many anglers especially in the early spring. In reality, river fishing can be more predictable than lake or reservoir fishing once you understand that current really drives bass in rivers.
A recent fishing trip on Pool 4 of the Mississippi river really got me thinking about this topic, here is a video of my trip if you are more of a visual video learner instead of a reader. Either way, I am going to share some basic tips & lures that will shorten the learning curve for you when it comes to early spring bass fishing on rivers.
Early Spring Bass Fishing in April near Wabasha, MN
There are two main strategies or paths to find bass on rivers in the spring. You can either figure out where they winter and start looking close to there and follow them out or you can figure out where they spawn and back out from those areas until you collide with them.
Understanding wintering areas can be a little trickier to nail down on some rivers, but spawning areas are usually a little easier to identify from my perspective.
Smallmouth Bass like to have a little current and some hard bottom where they spawn, they typically avoid dead water for their spawning on rivers.
Chunky Largemouth that fell for a Fire Craw Bladed Jig
On the other hand, Largemouth are much more apt to find completely slack or no current areas with firm bottom for their reproductive cycle. For largies, I like to look for dead-end backwaters and sloughs with good cover, like wood, grass and some firm bottom or stumps to target as spawning areas.
Once the water temperature gets above 50 degrees, those fish won’t be too far away from where they plan to spawn. River fish are also pretty dependable biters in the spring. I love covering water with 1/4oz Super K Swim jigs and 3/8oz Bladed style jigs (Chatterbaits). Black and blue always seems to be a solid choice on rivers around me in the spring. Keep on the move until you run into a few fish and where there is a few, there is often a bunch not too far away.
If you are interested in checking out Super K swim jigs, use Code HELLABASS15 on their site to save 15% off!
Also, below is a list of other great products for catching bass in the early spring on river across the country. Tight lines!
What was once old is new again! This old saying could not be more true when it comes to remelting your old used soft plastic fishing lures and turning them into brand new fish-catching baits! Keep reading & watching for a great Make Your Own Lure DIY.
Examples of the many recycled lures I have produced from remelting my used baits
Let’s start with the reasons why you would want to do this: 1. Reduce littering, please never intentionally throw old or used soft plastic baits back into the water. These plastic baits do not dissolve or decompose in the water, never a good idea. Plus fish have been known to digest them and it is unhealthy for them to do so. So regardless, keep them in your boat & dispose of properly one way or the other. 2. If you end up recycling or remelting your baits, this ultimately ends up doing your small part to reduce the impact on landfills, so you can feel good about that. 3. It can be a lot of fun making soft plastic baits and a good way to keep busy when the weather is not conducive to go fishing, you can be in your garage making baits & doing fishing-related activities, which can help you stay sane until your next bite! 4. In the long run, lure making can save you a fair amount of money. Most decent soft plastics cost between $3-7 per pack. So if you buy a cheap mold for $30, you only need to make 5-10 packs of new worms, craws or swimbaits to be money ahead. 5. Lastly, there is great satisfaction in catching your favorite fish on a bait that you made yourself!
Who would have thought that my little Fantasy Fishing podcast show on YouTube would end up getting me featured as a so called “Expert” on the Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing page…..
New for 2020 is my newly created Fantasy Fishing Group called BEAT HELLABASS. Make sure to follow the link, joing the group to win great prize packs from Bass Utopia & BassTEK on top of the great prizes from Rapala & BASS.
Also, new for 2020, I am launching a audio version for Fantasy Fishing edge that you can download via your favorite podcast apps. Search Fantasy Fishing Edge or follow this link to the home page and go from there.
For those that love the original YouTube shows, those are not going away. Follow this link or watch below.
Fantasy Fishing Podcast Fantasy Fishing Powered by Bass Utopia
What are the best gifts for the fisherman who has everything?
Fishermen and fisher gals are arguably some of the most difficult people to shop for out of anyone. So today, I am sharing 5 Can’t-Miss Ideas for you to add to your list or if you are looking for ideas for the special fisherman in your life!
Best Gift Ideas for Fishermen
If you don’t’ want to watch the gift ideas, check out my video if you prefer to read the ideas, scroll down!
Digital Handheld Scales – Having a scale is the difference between a fishing tale & a legit story & proof a true trophy catch. All anglers should have a quality scale for their fishing trips. If your angler owns a boat & primarily fishes from that, I recommend this scale, if they tend to fish from shore, other people’s boats or ice fishing, then check out this smaller more compact version.
Long Sleeve Sun Hoodies – Sun Protection is nothing to joke about and sunscreen is just too easy to forget and when the bite is good, reapplying rarely happens. For me these long sleeve sun hoodies have been the deal, I never get burned any more & feel much better after a long day in the sun. Here are two links to two of my favorite versions, one from AFTCO & the other SIMMS.
Boost Pack – This item is highly underrated & a must-have for any outdoors person. These small compact lithium boost packs have the juice to jumpstart a truck, car or boat. Plus they can keep GoPros, Smart Phones and other small electronics running all weekend. There are tons of options, here is a link to an affordable boost pack that has worked perfectly for my needs.
Glide Baits & Swimbaits – Big baits are all the rage these days! Here is a list of affordable big baits that won’t break the bank but still catch fish! River2Sea S-Waver Arashi Glide Bait Baby Bull Shad
Fishing Tackle Subscription Boxes – Think of these as Birch Box or Stitch fix for anglers. Basically you can sign up for 1, 3 or 6-month subscriptions and send them as gifts where they will get new handpicked tackle for them every month. Below are a few very popular fishing tackle subscription services: MonsterBass – #TheBetterBox Mystery Tackle Box 6th Sense Tackle Bags Lucky Tackle Boxes
BONUS – GIFT CARDS ARE AWESOME GIFTS Here are some of my fav stores to get Gift Cards for: Omnia Fishing Tackle Warehouse TheHookUpTackle
